I read this short piece from The Economist on PR this morning. The whole article is worth a read but the tag was definitely my favourite, it read “Other firms suffering has bolstered the public relations business.” Sounds like a parasite party is on. The gist of the piece is…

PR is a business in crisis. There are a variety of reasons for this but the Three S’s are largely responsible. These are spin, spamming and story pitches with no news value. As Brian Solis has eloquently stated, “PR does not stand for press release”. I agree with his contention…

I just read a superb post by Edward Boches at Creativity Unbound. He refers, in a funny but accurate way, to the struggle some have to stay on top of all things digital, do their jobs and maintain their lives. Read it, the post and comments are great. Edward’s thoughts…

I saw this excellent report on the Communications strategy Mark McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals are employing to deal with his prolonged and willful use of steroids. McGwire is working with former Dubya Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer to mitigate negative media coverage and rehabilitate his tarnished image. I…

For a variety of reasons Stephen Harper has decided to prorogue (basically to shut down) Canada’s Parliament until March. I am not going to dignify the politicians and their spin monkey mechanism by discussing the reasons cited for and against closing the House of Commons. Full disclosure: I worked on…

Journalism is a day in day out grind and has the added problem of trying to combine exalted purpose (think about the public service performed by exposing Tiger Woods or Balloon Boy and blanket covering OJ) with the harsh reality of needing to act like a business. Tough stuff. Mother…

One of the goals of this blog is to document and analyze people and organizations getting it right in the world of PR and Communications. But before I start throwing accolades at a campaign by the fabulous city of Montreal’s Tourism Board let’s disclose the following so that there’s no…

It’s a tough time for marketing executives. Bottom lines are being eviscerated, marketers are being forced to “do more with less,” and digital channels are changing the way the game is played. In the face of this latter development a gang of truth-talkers and charlatans have emerged to tell us…